My food is "just"! Just meaning honest, no bullshit! It is also easy to prepare, you don't need to be a pro to cook my recipes - and most important: its all about taste - they are delicious.

For the past twenty years, I have been travelling across Asia, Africa and the Americas, collecting amazing impressions on the local foods of so many different cultures. In my recipes, you will find those influences and flavors which I collected during all those years.

Barbieri? That was my great grandmother - she was a star in the kitchen. Why I named this blog after her? Well, her name just sounds better.

As I am travelling a lot, you will find suggestions of restaurants on this blog as well.

Feb 3 shrimp tempura & ponzu

Tempura, the japanese way of frying your favorite meat, fish and vegetables. I use two of my favorites : Shrimp and Avocado, and on top I made a very simple but delicious sauce : Ponzu !

The sauce you can buy in Asia stores, or you can make it yourself – all you need is a bunch of japanese ingredients, actually only two special ones : Kelp (a kind of seaweed) and bonito flakes (very light and small fishy flakes). Try this light and protein-loaded delicacy !

Ingredients :

Ponzu :

1 TBS lime juice

1 TBS lemon juice

1 TBS mirin

1 TBS rice vinegar

4 TBS good qualitiy soy sauce

A bunch (about 2 TBS) bonito flakes

A piece (about the size of a post-it) of kelp

Tempura batter :

Here I indicate the measurments in cups, as it is so easy and quick! I use a normal cup, something a bit smaller than a mug.

1 cup of white flour (sieved)

1 cup of iced water

1 egg

Then you need the shrimps and avocado, and any kind of vegetables or seafood you like. Also, don’t forget the frying oil for deep frying, I use peanut butter oil.

Directions :

Ponzu :

All ingredients go into a small bowl, then set aside in the fridge for an hour (or over night), then sieve into a small serving dish. Done!

Tempura:

For the batter, put an egg into a bowl, add the iced water and stir with a whisk. Now slowly sieve the flour into the mix and stir until you have a thick batter. It must still be semi-liquid, not too liquid though as it has to stick to the shrimps and veggies afterwards.

In a big pan, fill the lower part with oil and set to medium-high heat. Season the shrimps and avocado chunks with salt, then drop the shrimp into the batter and then immediately into the hot oil. Repeat with the other shrimps and avocado pieces, but don’t overload the pan. After about one minute, the shrimps and avocado are done.

Enjoy !

Don’t throw the oil into the sink! Pour back into the bottle when cold and dispose with the trash.